A method and a device for use in adapting the position of printing plates to a deformation of a paper web to be imprinted by printing rollers is known from DE 195 16 368 A1. The printing plate, or the holder receiving it in a punching and/or bending machine, is respectively displaced or is offset in the lateral direction, in the circumferential direction and/or in its angular position by those amounts which the printing plate requires on its printing roller because of the deformation of the paper web. This is done in order to provide an imprint which corresponds with a previous printing roller, in the feeding direction of the paper web, in spite of the deformation of the paper web which had taken place in the meantime. Bending and/or punching of the plate or holder is performed on this printing plate displaced from its zero position. A computer-controlled alignment device, in the punching and/or bending machine, is employed for this purpose, after the respective data regarding the paper web, the printing press and the production type have been entered in the computer. In this case, the deformation of the paper web, which is also known by the term “fan out”, is caused by moisture, by ink absorption and by mechanical stresses in the course of the passage of the paper web through several pairs of printing rollers which are arranged one after the other.
Image regulation systems for counteracting the “fan out effect” are known from DE 295 01 373 U1, from DE 42 24 235 C2, from DE 43 27 646 A1 and from EP 0 938 414 B2. In these systems the image regulators operate mechanically or pneumatically, for example.